Curiosidades na nomenclatura mineralógica : Porpezita do Brasil.

Abstract

At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, especially in the early years of the 20th century, again and again the name Porpezit can be found immersed in books of mineralogy, mainly in Europe and especially in the French literature. The name refers to a gold-palladium (Au, Pd) alloy. Samples of Porpezite arrived in Viena during the mid-19th century. Probably brought by the austrian mineralogist Pohl. They allegedly came from the Porpez Captaincy (province) in Brazil. However, there is no such captaincy has it ever existed. The name most likely from the name of the Brazilian state of Goias. In this article, we discuss three possible reasons for such distortion, how Goias was transformed into Porpez, and how Porpez gave its name to the mineral Porpezit. The IMA (International Mineralogical Association) does not recognize this name. Nevertheless, it is no longer possible to banish the term from the literature, especially not from the Internet.